


Names, Cats, and Other Vital Things

by 23Murasaki



Series: Everyone Lives! [5]
Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Agni is a nice person, Fluff, Gen, I tagged that ship because L said to, butlering is also difficult, demoning is difficult, the cats know what's up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-31
Updated: 2014-01-31
Packaged: 2018-01-10 09:46:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1158160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/23Murasaki/pseuds/23Murasaki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sebastian comes to an strange realization, and then promptly ignores several others, Agni plays with cats, and nothing is said outright. Prompt: names, superstition</p>
            </blockquote>





	Names, Cats, and Other Vital Things

(name, superstition)  
It was slightly disconcerting to realize that Those Two practically lived in the manor now. They had certainly not been invited, and the demon and his young master had had every intention of turning both of them out as soon as possible. Somehow that had not happened, and now Prince Soma had taken up semi-permanent residence in a guest bedroom – the one with the vaguely gilded wallpaper, it had been such a bother to decorate – and Agni... kept being Agni in unexpected places. It was quite annoying, really.  
  
What made it altogether worse was that everyone else seemed to approve, or at least approve as much as the English could of foreigners. At this point, the demon could recite the legend of Kali from memory, he had heard it repeated to curious guests often enough, Lady Elizabeth started picking up words of Bengali and using them in daily conversation, and when the Queen’s messenger arrived he could often be found half-cheerily chatting with Agni about tea harvests and monsoons. The demon grumbled about it often when he was out in the garden playing with the cats and pretending that the garden was his and he was mature. The cats, he thought, agreed wholeheartedly with his sentiments about idiots, humans, foreigners, religion, this all-forsaken contract, and the uses and abuses of spices. Cats, after all, were wise in the ways of the world.  
  
“Ah? Are you a friend of Sebastian’s?” Agni’s voice drifted through the open kitchen window – why did he even like to keep it open? – along with the meowed response. Wise though they were, it seemed even cats could fall prey to the likes of Agni.  
  
“You ought be careful with her,” the demon called out the window, his voice laced with fake cheerfulness. “In Egypt, cats were revered as gods, you know.”  
  
“I am aware!” Agni’s cheerfulness was certainly not forced. It probably never was. “In China as well. And I think... there is also an old English goddess who was attended by cats, is there not?”  
  
“A Celtic one, yes,” said the demon, trying to stir a pot of soup and lean out the window at the same time. What kind of butler would he be if he couldn’t do that, after all? “Though some stories are more willing to call her a wicked sorceress.”  
  
“Goddesses can have many faces,” said Agni, stooping to pick up the cat – two cats now, when had Rosie shown up? – at his feet. “In that way, they are much like human beings, no?”  
  
“That’s right,” agreed the demon with a grin. “Two-faced liars, the lot of them.” He had intended to anger the man, but somehow that hadn’t worked out as planned either, because Agni laughed softly.  
  
“Did you know, that is where my name comes from? A god with two faces?” he asked. The demon blinked.  
  
“You are named after a god?” he asked. It wasn’t entirely surprising, but it still made him wonder if English names were utterly inadequate in comparison. Agni smiled.  
  
“It is not uncommon in India, actually. Many people there are named that way. It is less common in the west, though. Do you know why?” It probably had something to do with people in Europe forgetting the names of their old gods.  
  
“I do not,” admitted the demon. “It seems like a strange thing to do. Does one try to invoke a blessing with such a name?”  
  
“Sometimes. Other times, it is a common name in a family. That is common everywhere.” Well, that did make sense.  
  
“Some people in Europe are named for saints and the like,” he said, a little uncertainly. Agni nodded.  
  
“Just like that, then.” One of the cats started batting at his braids, and he laughed so much he wound up sitting down, as the small army of cats that always hung around the garden chose that moment to swarm him. He laughed softly and kissed the nearest cat on the nose.  
  
“Beware, they may devour you,” said the demon, trying his best to thing about darkness and bloodshed and not cats or gods or Agni or kissing. It wasn’t working to well, as evidenced by the fact that the pot of soup behind him managed to boil over for a full four seconds before he noticed and hastily corrected the issue.


End file.
